Coco runoff problem

[StankyBeamer]

So recently my veg room took a shit, my ph pen was broke and i was fighting gnats so it wasnt untill thry were gone i began looking to diagnose other issues, becausr the damage from the ph imbalance looked like gnats feasting on the rootball as far as leaves yellowing and dying off. So i finally got the ph problem diagnosed, ane id say more than half the plants are alreadu turned around and lookikt vigorous again, but myrunoff is still coming out low after two weeks of runoff at proper ph.

I feed 4ml per gallon micro from general hydro, 6ml bloom, and 2ml rapid start per gallon, my water comes out of the filter at about 200ppm, and ive been watering till runoff with solution ph'd to 6.0-6.1 to slowly bring the mediums ph up, but im still getting as low as 5.0-4.9. Any ideas?

 

[Mikell]

Total EC? or ppm

 

[StankyBeamer]

Dont have a ppm meter currently, and my tap water varies from 175-250ppm on a 500 scale depending on season and filter condition. Back when i was checking ppms, it would be 600 after adding 4ml/6ml micro and bloom, i scaled back head's 6/9 because of my water hardness and the fact that i grow mostly light feeders

On a side note, i just started adding 2ml/gal of gh rapid stsrt, and have some osa 28 on the way

 

[chronosync]

Not sure but a couple thoughts....
Did you treat your roots with anything? Any reason to believe they were living in your pots? It's possible your roots are sick, that would be a concern of mine. Good luck I hate bugs.

 

[Midwest Toker]

First thing is I have never found run-off pH a accurate measure of what's happening in the rhizosphere. I use to freak out when it would come out 5.0 pH or lower. Just make sure you're pH going in is within range and you'll be fine.

 

[Granger2]

Lay off the Rapid Start. Just use it a few feedings after transplant. Good luck. -granger

 

[StankyBeamer]

First thing is I have never found run-off pH a accurate measure of what's happening in the rhizosphere. I use to freak out when it would come out 5.0 pH or lower. Just make sure you're pH going in is within range and you'll be fine.

I figured it wasnt as big of a deal as i was making it seem like to myself, everything recovered within a week of fixing the pen

Lay off the Rapid Start. Just use it a few feedings after transplant. Good luck. -granger

Im deffinitely gonna cut back to 1ml/gallon. Its hard to not give em at least a light feed with the rapid start every time, ive had some of the densest rootballs using the stuff at half strength every feed

 

[big teej]

The problem was with those gnats. They call them fungus gnats for a reason, they carry many diseases that can harm ur roots and plant. You may have root rot disease called pythium. Pythium does f with your ph. Look into getting some beneficial microorganisms in ur coco.

I suggest to you Mycogro soluble. Fungi.com the red package. Dirt cheap at 6 dollars. Just a scoop of that mixed with your watering( hefty scoops at first to load em up.)

In the meantike i would continue doing your thing with the feeding, just dont overdo it. As long as ur pen is surely fixed and accurate ph. Add a bottle of 3% h2o2 / gallon in with your next watering. This will kill a lot of the pythium and supply ur roots with some oxygen (it wont hurt). Do that in the meantime until u can get ur hands on a mycogrow pack or similar product. Stop use h2o2 before you start using beneficial bacteria, it will kill the good ones too.

Tldr: most likely pythium, kill it with h2o2. Get some beneficial bacteria and prevent it from happening again. Wait until u see ur roots with rapif start and some bennies.

 

[MrBungle]

how long have these girls been in veg?

 

[StankyBeamer]

The problem was with those gnats. They call them fungus gnats for a reason, they carry many diseases that can harm ur roots and plant. You may have root rot disease called pythium. Pythium does f with your ph. Look into getting some beneficial microorganisms in ur coco.

I suggest to you Mycogro soluble. Fungi.com the red package. Dirt cheap at 6 dollars. Just a scoop of that mixed with your watering( hefty scoops at first to load em up.)

In the meantike i would continue doing your thing with the feeding, just dont overdo it. As long as ur pen is surely fixed and accurate ph. Add a bottle of 3% h2o2 / gallon in with your next watering. This will kill a lot of the pythium and supply ur roots with some oxygen (it wont hurt). Do that in the meantime until u can get ur hands on a mycogrow pack or similar product. Stop use h2o2 before you start using beneficial bacteria, it will kill the good ones too.

Tldr: most likely pythium, kill it with h2o2. Get some beneficial bacteria and prevent it from happening again. Wait until u see ur roots with rapif start and some bennies.

I deffinitely dont have pythium, ive been alternating h2o2 and sm90 once a week each for the whole month everything was stalled, and after the gnats were gone i flushed the hell out of everything and started using trichoderma innoculant from kelp4less.com, it was like $40 for an 8oz bag of pure spores, a 1/8th teaspoon is enough for a 50 gallon res according to the instructions, and ive been using about half that per 5gal. It was most deffinitely the ph. Bad news is the fungus gnats got back through an unsealed exhaust, a stupid oversight i know but i have hypoapsis miles on the case and the breach has been taken care of

how long have these girls been in veg?

About eight weeks, four of which they were stalled

 

[chronosync]

The trichoderma is good to have in your roots especially if you aren't culturing a micro herd. It's my understanding that trichoderma is highly aggressive and wins out on most competitors in your "dirt" so you probably don't need to keep adding it but I don't think it can hurt.

If you haven't used spinosad I've had good success with Captain Jack's deadbug. None of my plants ever seem to mind it whatsoever. I've used it as a spray and as a drench. Good stuff and will decimate gnats.

 

[StankyBeamer]

Thanks for the tip, ive got a bottle laying around somewhere. Ive used a combo of cold pressed neem and spinosad in the past, but also alternated with pyrethrin, so i wasnt sure which did the trick last summer, but i know the neem and pyrethrin burned my roots a bit, so ive been trying to stick to peroxide, ill get a good drench of both a few days apart in a week or two after the predators knock the population down a bit, and then reintroduce predators after flushing the coco. Who knows, might not need to. Last time i unleashed 25,000 hypoapsis, i didnt see a flyer again for about six months when i got dirty clones, maybe the predators will be enough

 

[MrBungle]

I think H2O2 might counteract with the Spinosad.. its actually a living bacteria.. if the bottle is old it might not be active anymore anyways

 

[chronosync]

It's true a bacteria creates a neuro toxin that kills insects but I don't think it must be alive for the bottle to still be active. Sort of like ethanol being a byproduct of yeast, it remains?

 

[Granger2]

Spinosad is an extract of live bacteria, not a bacterial culture. FYI. Good luck. -granger

 

[MrBungle]

Thanks for the heads up guys.. I realized I was wrong when I read chronosync's reply

 

[StankyBeamer]

They have bottles for like $12, so no big deal if i need another bottle of captain jacks concentrate

 

[chronosync]

Thanks for the heads up guys.. I realized I was wrong when I read chronosync's reply

Now I know for sure too, thanks Granger.